Tag: PCB design

How do you make a book globally available while protecting your IP?

Several years ago, Robert Feranec, a well-known video blogger in the printed circuit board industry, was kind enough to post about our PCB Foundations textbook.  Our book guides those trying to understand the design process for creating printed circuit boards better.  As shocking as it sounds, this medium, which the entire electronics industry relies upon, is not generally taught in colleges and universities!  (This absurdity requires a posting all its own.)

Due to Robert’s posting, we were flooded with requests from engineers and designers worldwide hoping to get a copy of the book.  Though we were incredibly flattered, and certainly would have liked to oblige, the shipping costs (nearing $200 along with printing) for the 400+ page hardcover book rendered the idea rather impractical.

How else could we impart the book to these customers?

We looked into other distributing methods, namely a PDF, but these options would be easily susceptible to hacking and mass distribution. No matter how we may try to secure the document, “if there’s a will, there’s a way,” especially if there are very limited resources out there. Policing and monitoring hacked copies is rather impractical, if not impossible.
   
As a result, we decided to turn the physical book into an audiobook video series on YouTube.  We used an AI voice narrator that was methodical and clear in English, considering many who requested the book spoke/read English as a second language. We also added closed captions to assist those who struggle with oral English. The pictures in the book were displayed in the videos as the narration progressed.  In addition to the images in the book, additional pictures were added to the videos to correspond to the verbiage.

It was a unique undertaking, and by doing so, we accomplished the overall goal of making this resource globally available without compromising our copyright.

If you want to see the videos, click on this link:

https://ninedotconnectssandbox.com/training-pcb-foundations-videos

PCB Foundations – Book

We at Nine Dot Connects are excited to release our book, PCB Foundations.  For grins, we decided to reach out to Steve O’Blenis, the owner of Warbucks Designs, to see what fun he could have with an image or two to promote the book.  Steve is a big pop culture/movie fan with a knack for combining different pop culture concepts.  Steve provided us with these two images:

Oddly, though Steve did not have a copy of the book when he created the image, page 88 of the 1st edition is the very last page before introducing the design process.

How true, but maybe a bit too edgy…

If you would like to see more of Steve’s work, check out warbucksdesign.com

And, of course, if you would like to purchase PCB Foundations, click HERE:

Why PCB is a Mechanical Creature – Part 2

This article’s argument for mechanical engineering involvement in PCB design is specific to the layout.  The schematics and circuit design such as power, analog, and digital belong to the electrical engineering domain and this area requires classroom and lab experience which one would expect from a degreed electrical program.  It is not to say that a mechanical engineer cannot do circuit design.  More so, we envision a future in which academia offers degrees in mechatronic design.  Under the current circumstances, this industry is notorious for making gross assumptions about an engineer’s capabilities and we wish not to propagate the belief that a mechanical engineer can do the whole PCB design based on their degree alone unless they have been exposed to circuit design during their undergraduate career.  – Paul Taubman

Continue reading Why PCB is a Mechanical Creature – Part 2

Thermal Management and Yet again Why Mechanical Engineers Better Get Involved in PCB Design

In a recent article published in PCB Design 007 (January 2018 – See link below), one of the few Ph. D’s in the printed circuit board industry was interviewed regarding thermal issues.  In particular, he and a colleague were questioning the numbers that have been long held as definitive facts.  When we have an electronic product in our hands, there is a gross assumption that the thermal issues have been well thought out.  Between questionable data and lack of knowledge in thermodynamics, this may not be the case.

Continue reading Thermal Management and Yet again Why Mechanical Engineers Better Get Involved in PCB Design

Know Your Customer

Why the ‘Golden Demo’ Isn’t So Golden!

When I was an application engineer at Altium, I was given the task of creating a golden demo which we would use for a weekly webinar.  A colleague of mine and I managed to pull together a rather intricate 45-minute script that would demonstrate numerous functions of Altium Designer.  Granted, I knew nothing about marketing and I was coming into this job after a decade of test and integration engineering.

Continue reading Know Your Customer

INTERVIEW: Good Design Instruction is a True Value-Add

This is an interview conducted by the editor, Andy Shaughnessy, of I-Connect007 with Paul Taubman back on November 9, 2017.

Nine Dot Connects has certainly blazed an interesting trail. The company started out as an Altium reseller, but in less than a decade, Nine Dot Connects has also become a design service bureau and a provider of PCB design instruction, training, and consulting services. A quick scan through their webpage reveals dozens of archived PCB design webinars, all neatly organized by category.

Continue reading INTERVIEW: Good Design Instruction is a True Value-Add